Long Live the Pumpkin King
by newbienovelistRD
Summary: Rachel, Sasha, Ben, and Dana help Jack Skellington reclaim his Halloween spirit before Oogie Boogie takes over Halloween town!


Rachel and Sasha had their Halloween costumes ready. Rachel was dressed as Little Miss Muffet and Sasha was Little Red Riding Hood.

"Okay, sis. Our ride should be here soon!" Rachel adjusted her pink gingham bonnet and smoothed out her matching dress. She carefully looked at herself in the mirror. "Okay, what am I missing?"

"The spider!" Sasha said. "You're missing the spider!"

Rachel gasped. "Oh, yeah!" She went to her closet and pulled out a large, furry black spider with beady red eyes and long posable legs. Sasha meekly helped her sister place the spider on her back while Rachel adjusted the legs to make it look like the spider was attacking her from behind.

"I know it's fake but this spider still creeps me out!" Sasha said. "Are you sure this is necessary?"

"Of course it's necessary! It's Halloween!" Rachel replied. "I want to be scary and nothing's scarier than spiders. I'm surprised you're not something scary."

"Oooh, no! You know I don't do scary!" Sasha said. "I chose this costume because grandma always makes Halloween special for us. We would always go over to her house and eat our candy, play games and watch movies!" She sighed. "Too bad she's away this year."

"RRRRRR!"

A shadow fell over Sasha. She spun around to see Frankenstrike looming over her, he growled as he reached for her with his huge monster hands.

"AAAAH! FRANKENSTEIN!" Sasha quickly hid behind Rachel.

Frankenstrike laughed. "Gotcha!"

"Frankenstrike!" an embarrassed Sasha said, her face red as her hood. "You scared me!"

"Of course! Gotta make sure my scares are perfect for tonight!"

Two clawed hands came out of the dark and grabbed Sasha, she squealed until her grabber kissed her cheek. "It's just me, my precious pumpkin."

Sasha giggled. She and Whampire kissed and shared a tickle. "So, you and the guys are going out haunting?"

"You bet your hood we are!" Blitzwolfer said. "We're gonna scare the chocolate bars out of those trick or treaters!" He let out a great big howl.

Snare-oh shambled in the room, groaning with his arms stiffly stretched out. Sasha felt goosebumps prickling on her skin.

"Wow! You guys will definitely get some scare satisfaction!" Rachel said.

Sasha gulped. "Just don't scare them too bad..."

"Don't worry, Sasha. We're just going to give the kids good little scares and give the bully punk kids the scare of a lifetime!" Snare-oh said. "Let's go, my blood-curdling brothers!" The Galactic Monsters howled and shrieked as they ran out the door.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

"They're here!" Rachel rushed to the door and opened it. It was Ben and Dana! Ben looked like an undead hot mess. His head, arms and chest were wrapped in a bloody bandages and his clothes were smeared with mud. He looked like he had one foot in the grave, fell in, came out, got hit by a car, fell back in the grave and got out again.

"Yikes, Ben! Is that your costume?!" Rachel gasped. "You look awful!"

Ben smiled. "Yep! I'm going as myself...but dead!"

Dana was in her normal form. It seemed like the perfect time for her to be herself without spooking any humans. "Who's ready for Halloween?!"

"We are!" Sasha said as she rode on Snare-oh's shoulders. "We're gonna have this Halloween with the pumpkin king himself! Jack Skellington!"

"It's not Halloween without Jack!" said Rachel. "

Just then, Another person burst through the mansion door. It was Sally! Jack's wife! "EVERYONE! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"

"Huh?! What's wrong, Sally?!" asked Ben, who was lying on the floor after Sally scared him.

"It's Jack! He's lost his scare!" Sally wailed. She was in full on panic mode.

"WHAT?!" Everyone screamed like someone stole their lives.

"We gotta get to Halloween Town! Toot Sweet!" Rachel said. "Jack needs us! Without him, there's no Halloween for anyone!"

Sally and everyone else raced to the forest where the door to Halloween Town was. Sally swung it open and the friends were sucked inside, the door slamming shut behind them.

* * *

 **OOF!**

Ben landed right on top of Sally. He screamed when he saw her limbs detached. Sally took out her needle and spook of thread. Ben watched in fascination as the rag doll easily repaired herself.

Dana was able to catch Rachel and Sasha before they hit the ground. "Okay! Let's go henp Jack!" Rachel declared.

Sally lead the kids to Jack's home. Ben felt goosebumps looking up at the creaky old house perched atop a tall staircase. "Man, this place is all kinds of creepy!"

"Thanks, we do our best." Sally opened the door and the gang walked inside. Jack's house was super spooky. It was cold, dark, and dusty, the perfect atmosphere for a skeleton.

"Jack? Where are you?" Sally called out.

"Oh, hello, Sally..."

Sasha jumped when she saw a white figure appear down the dark hallway. When the figure came closer, everyone was shocked to see Jack Skellington wearing his white pajamas and stocking cap instead of his trademark black and white pinstripe suit.

"Jack?! Why are you in your pajamas?! It's Halloween!" Rachel said. "You have a Halloween to put on! People to scare!"

Jack sighed. "I'm all washed up, Sweetie. I'm just not scary anymore..."

"What?! Jack! You're the scariest skeleton there is!" Sasha said. "You even scared me just now!"

"You don't understand, Sasha. Just last week, I was practicing my scaring around town. But I matter what I did, no one was scared of me! They all called me a Halloween has-been!"

"WHAT?! That doesn't sound like the townsfolk to me!" Sally said. She blinked. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen the mayor or anyone else lately."

A brief pause.

Jack blinked. "Come to think of it, Sally, you're right. The town's been more quiet than a graveyard lately! I wonder what could be wrong?"

The gang ventured outside and Jack was shocked to see nobody at all! It was Halloween night and no one was out celebrating or anything! "Where is everybody?!" Aghast, Jack ran to the middle of the town square. "It's Halloween for goodness sake! There's no spine-chilling decorations! No wailing through the air! No monsters groaning and growling! There's nothing here! This isn't what Halloween is suppose to be!"

Sasha suddenly screamed when she saw a strange mass of tiny creatures crawling from underneath the town buildings. Ben, Dana, and Rachel screamed as well.

"WHAT'S WITH ALL THESE BUGS?!" Sasha screeched.

There were bugs crawling everywhere. All sorts of insects crawled from the cracks and crevices of Halloween Town and gathered in the middle of the square.

"What's this?!" Jack exclaimed.

The bugs gathered together and took shape, assuming a humanoid form. Two fireflies provided the eyes for the flesh-crawling creature.

"JAAAAAAACK!" An all too familiar voice sang menacingly.

Jack gasped. "That voice! It's Oogie Boogie!"

"Oogie who-what now?!" Ben blubbered.

"Oogie Boogie! A Boogeyman who's all bad made of bugs!" Jack said. "I thought he was destroyed al long time ago! But how?!"

Oogie chuckled darkly. "You wanna know how, eh?! Well, after you destroyed my burlap sack body as well as my precious bugs, Lock, Shock, and Barrel used a little dark magic to reanimate my soul into a big! Soon enough, millions of bugs were at my command and I was back...with a few new tricks."

Oogie then transformed into a spitting image of the mayor! Then Dr. Finklestein, and all the citizens of Halloween Town! Once I learned this little trick, I could see my revenge now. All I had to do was get you out of the way until after Halloween! I became the townsfolk to get inside your head, Jack! While you were busy getting all down in the dumps, Halloween would be ruined and I will rule Halloween Town!"

Jack heard a scream behind him and saw Sally and his friends pinned down by Oogie's bugs. Because of the dark magic infused within them, Dana couldn't phase through or do anything!

"HEEEEEELP!" Sasha screamed. Everyone screamed in fear.

Oogie laughed upon hearing their screams. "THIS IS THE TRUE MEANING OF FEAR!" he roared. "And now, I'll finally get rid of you, Jack! ATTACK!"

The bugs came for Jack. But the Pumpkin King just stood there, his bony fists clenched. He felt anger rising inside him from his head to his toes. Oogie set him up from beginning to end. Halloween was ruined, his friends endangered, and now Oogie was going to take over the town.

Jack could feel the anger manifest from deep inside him. And it did.

Just as the bugs touched Jack's feet, black flames engulfed the skeleton's body. The bugs squealed and backed away as the fire took the form of a hooded cloak, giving Jack a completely different image.

Jack looked at his nemesis, his empty eye sockets glaring daggers. Jack stuck his hand out and shot out a blast of black fire. Oogie dodged, but a speck of fire caught him and Oogie's body became engulfed in seconds.

"NO! NOT AGAIN! MY BUGS! MY BUGS!" Oogie fell to to the ground, writhing in pain as he was being burned.

As his body burned, the bugs crawled off of everyone. Jack used his black fire to burn the rest of Oogie's insects.

Oogie staggered up and hurried to the fountain. He jumped in to rinse the water off, but the fire didn't go out! Oogie was still on fire!

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Oogie burned and burned until every single bug was burned to ashes.

Everyone gaped at Jack. He looked more frightening than ever. It almost looked like he was the Grim Reaper himself! He flicked his wrist and the stray flames returned to his cloak before they spread.

"Jack...what happened to you?!" asked a visibly stunned Sally.

Jack looked at himself. "I...don't know. I thought I was using my pumpkin fire, but...this is nothing like it! I don't no know what this is!"

"Well, whatever it is, don't get too close! I can feel the flames from here!" Ben said. "It's even hotter than real fire! Can you change back?!"

Jack closed his eyes and concentrated. The flames began to dissipate and Jack was back to wearing his pajamas. "Amazing! Well, we can ponder this strange phenomenon another time. Right now, Halloween must be saved!"

* * *

And so, thanks to a little investigating, Jack found the real citizens of Halloween locked away in Oogie's lair. The ghosts and monsters were back and Halloween was back to normal! And so was Jack.

"I can't thank you all enough!" Jack said. "Thanks to you, Halloween is saved!"

"We didn't do anything, Jack." said Rachel. "You're the one who beat Oogie and destroyed him again!"

"Yeah! You were the hero, Jack!" said Ben. "And don't you forget it! That flaming cloak was awesome! You even scared me and I'm on your side!"

Jack's trademark smile stretched across his bony face. Sasha beamed seeing that smile, it was sure sign that Jack had returned being the Pumpkin King. "I'm glad your back, Jack." she said. "It'll be a while before you call it quits."

"Indeed!" Jack hugged Sasha. "HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!"

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN!" Everyone cheered.

The town began playing 'This is Halloween', their town anthem and all the ghosts and ghouls began dancing in the moonlight.

"I know I say this every year, but this year's Halloween was without a doubt, the most horrible yet!" Jack said.

"Yeah! You became a horrifying flaming skeleton and torched all of Oogie's bugs!" Dana said.

"That power of yours definitely needs to be looked into." Ben said. "But for now, let's enjoy the best Halloween party ever!"

"I agree!" Jack said. All of his friends were happy that the Pumpkin King was back and scarier than ever.

In a good way of course.


End file.
